The Whole Planet Foundation

"Microcredit ignites the tiny economic engines of the rejected underclass of society. Once a large number of tiny engines start working, the stage can be set for bigger things." -Professor Muhammad Yunus, founder of Bangladesh's Grameen Bank

It’s Sunday morning, and you shuffle across Broad Street to Whole Foods to pick up some bacon and eggs from the breakfast bar and a few groceries. When you get to the register, your cashier rings up your items and gives you your total. But the conversation doesn’t stop there, because your cashier asks you a question: “We’re investing in a future without poverty – want to help?”

This might seem like an odd question to hear at a grocery store. But at Whole Foods Market, this is simply part of the culture. Once a year, Whole Foods Market stores participate in an Annual Campaign to raise money for the Whole Planet Foundation®. The foundation is a private, nonprofit organization that provides grants to microfinance institutions in Asia, Africa, the Americas and the Middle East, who in turn develop and offer microenterprise loan programs, training and other financial services to the self-employed poor.

Last year alone, Whole Foods Market® shoppers raised over $6.2 million during their Annual Campaign to alleviate poverty around the globe, including right here in the United States!

Whole Planet Foundation was born out of Whole Foods Market's desire to give something back to those who have helped them succeed while focusing on the persistent problem of world poverty and hunger. The foundation was formed with the entrepreneurial spirit of Whole Foods Market in partnership with Professor Muhammad Yunus and Grameen Bank, co-recipients of 2006 Nobel Peace Prize. Whole Foods Market covers 100% of the Foundation’s operating cost, which means 100% of the donations benefit impoverished entrepreneurs worldwide where Whole Foods Market sources products.

Whole Planet Foundation® works with trusted microfinance partners to fund microcredit loans (typically loans of around $200 requiring no collateral or contract) to more than 259,000 clients (89% of them women) with a repayment rate of 97%. To date, the foundation has committed more than $34 million and disbursed more than $24 million.

But who truly benefits from these microloans? Women like Faiza in Pakistan, where the average loan size is $175. Like the millions of others in Pakistan, she and her family abandoned her business (a grocery store) to evacuate to a safer location to escape the 2010 floods, the worst flooding in 80 years. 21 million Pakistanis were injured or displaced. When Faiza returned in November, she found her store destroyed and had to "start from zero." With a new microloan funded by on-lending capital support from Whole Planet Foundation to microfinance institution BRAC Pakistan, she was able to reopen her store with fresh new inventory.